Trim Your Sails

      Whatever the exact strategy of any particular extended glide, its success depends in great part on your application of effective, efficient technique.   The following true story illustrates why precision in gliding is so important.     Two very good pilots left wave at 17,000 feet, gliding from here at Crystal, downwind toward the Sierras.   When they arrived at Owens Peak, 85 miles north, one had flown a teeensy bit more carefully and lost about 300 feet less altitude than his buddy.   This made it possible for him to fly straight on up the range without pause, while the other pilot had to stop and climb.   That separated them by miles, and they never saw each other again the rest of the day.    NOTE:  the disparity in altitude lost compared to the great distance flown on that one glide was less than 0.07 percent, but it greatly influenced the two pilots' results!